Search - All Through the Night - Authentic Region 1 DVD from Warner Brothers starring Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt, Kaaren Verne, Jane Darwell, Frank Mc Hugh, Jackie Gleason, Peter Lorre, Barton Maclane, William Demarest & Directed by Vincent Sherman on DVD

Overlooked gem!

A Reader | USA | 04/23/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of Bogey's best films, this action-comedy holds up now far better than a number of his better-known pictures.

A terrific, colorful cast of characters portray Broadway gamblers and Irish-American gangsters facing off against a Nazi spy ring in WWII New York City. A fast-moving story, a lot of great dialogue, and a glimpse of familiar faces like Phil Silvers and Jackie Gleason in their salad days. Cast also includes wonderful Warner regulars like Peter Lorre and Conrad Veidt."

Bogart Comedy

Dr. James Gardner | California | 03/20/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"There are no really bad Bogart movies (except maybe "The Oklahoma Kid"), but "All Through the Night" certainly doesn't make it into his top 50. The film was the last of 4 films he did in 1941, and released on December 2, just prior to Pearl Harbor. "The Maltese Falcon" and "High Sierra" were released earlier that year, and "Casablanca" would be released almost a year later. But don't even dream of comparing "All Through the Night" with these classics. It ranks more on a level with such forgettable Bogie films as "The Wagons Roll at Night" (1941) - the bevy of B films that Warner produced in the late 30s and early 40s to rehabilitate Bogart's character. Up until that point, Bogart had been the villain, often playing second fiddle to Warner's big time stars Jimmy Cagney and Edward G Robinson. But gangster films were being squeezed by the Hays Code and Robinson, Cagney, and Bogart were being slowly transformed to keep their box office cache.

To Bogart's good fortune, George Raft had turned down the leading roles in "High Sierra" and "The Maltese Falcon", as well as "All Through the Night". Though Raft was probably right about this film, he was deadly wrong about the other two, and Bogart's career took off while Raft's career floundered.

Bogart shares the screen with Peter Lorre and Conrad Veidt, both of whom would appear with him in "Casablanca" a few months later. Veidt was one of the best known German silent screen stars, appearing in "The Cabinet of Dr Caligari" (1920) among other classics. An anti-Nazi married to a Jew, Veidt fled Germany in 1933 when Hitler took power. He moved to England and then the US in 1940 where, ironically, he played the Nazi in several films such as "Nazi Agent" (1942) and "Above Suspicion" (1943). Veidt died of a heart attack in 1943. "All Through the Night" is one of his last films.

Peter Lorre was an international film star after his frightening portrayal of a child killer in "M" (1931). Like Veidt, Lorre was anti-Nazi and fled Germany in 1933. He was famed for his Mr. Moto series (1937 - 1939), and shared screen credits with Bogart in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), "Casablanca" (1942), and "Passage to Marseille" (1944).

The film is notable for the supporting cast which includes two later giants of TV who show glimmers of their later greatness - Jackie Gleason and Phil Silvers (aka "Bilko").

Also present is William Demarest who went on to TV fame as Uncle Charley in "My Three Sons" (1965 - 1972). Other cast members include Barton MacLane playing a heavy (what else is new?) and Frank McHugh playing the amusing side kick. McHugh's chubby face appeared in more than 100 films including "The Roaring Twenties" (1939), "Virginia City" (1940), and "Mighty Joe Young" (1949). In the 50s he turned to TV where he appeared in dozens of shows, remembered best as Willie from "The Bing Crosby Show" (1964-5).

The great Jane Darwell is completed wasted in this film as Bogart's Irish mother. Darwell is best remembered as Grandma Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath" for which she received the Oscar. But this was one of nearly 200 films in which she appeared, and she made major contributions to films such as "GWTW" (1939), and with Henry Fonda in "Jesse James" (1939), "The Ox Bow Incident" (1943), and "My Darling Clementine" (1946).

Vincent Sherman directs. The film begins as a fast paced comedy and shortly turns into a spy movie, but the transition is awkward and attempts to maintain the comedy are not successful. Although he was a busy director and worked on dozens of films ("Mr. Skeffington", "Adventures of Don Juan"), his work was relatively undistinguished. Indeed, parts of "All Through the Night" clearly lag. Sherman was investigated by HUAC which ended his film career and he made the transition to TV where he worked on series such as "The Waltons", "Baretta" and "77 Sunset Strip".

As part of the pre WW2 Hollywood propaganda, the film has some interest. The Warner Brothers hated the Germans, and they put out several pre-War films warning about the menace (e.g., "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" in 1939). What is very interesting is that Bogart discovers that the heroine's father is in a "concentration camp" named Dachau. For such info to be appearing in a Hollywood film in 1941 is strange indeed when many claim to have had no knowledge of concentration camps.

1941 was still not a year for much anti-German or pro-American film. "Sergeant York" and Michael Curtiz' "Dive Bomber" were the only major films that year with any kind of war message. But 1942 was a standout year, with Cagney's "Yankee Doddle Dandy" (Best Actor), "Wake Island", the "49th Parallel" (aka "The Invaders"), "To Be or Not To Be", and "Mrs. Miniver" (Best Picture). 1943 would see "Casablanca" (Best Picture), "Watch on the Rhine" (Best Actor), "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (Best Supporting Actress), "The Ox Bow Incident", "In Which we Serve" and "Forever and a Day."

Some people recommend this film as an example of Bogart's comedy skills. Personally, I don't see it. Most of the comedy is supplied by Phil Silvers, Jackie Gleason, and Frank McHugh, and Bogart is the straight man. There is a scene at a Nazi spy meeting in which Bogart attempts comedy, but it is awkward. Bogart was in several other films that were light hearted (e.g., "Sabrina", "Swing Your Lady", "We're No Angels") but he never did really well in these, and he's clearly better suited to the gangster films of the 30s and the detective films of the 40s and 50s.
"